She's got a viral hit, high-profile fans like Kanye West and Karl Lagerfeld, and the juiciest lips since Angelina Jolie's. You're going to want to get to know Azealia Banks

Azealia Banks broke
through with the
indelible black-andwhite
video for her
goofily raunchy
song "212," in which
she spits merciless
rhymes out of the
juiciest lips since
Angelina Jolie's. The
clip, shot cheaply and
on the fly, went viral
(4 million hits and
counting), earning
her a record deal with
Interscope, a top-ten
spot on Pitchfork's
best songs of 2011,
and a laundry list
of boldfaced fans,
including Kanye West,
Gwyneth Paltrow,
Karl Lagerfeld
(who hired her
for a party at his
home), and Lady
Gaga's style guru,
Nicola Formichetti,
who will direct
Banks's next video.
The Harlem-born
20-year-old seems
almost aggressively
unastonished by
the attention. "I
definitely have more
money and shit," she
admits, "but that's all
virtual stuff. I've been
making music for a
while. And I could
read about myself
on the Internet for a
while." And meeting
the likes of Kanye?
"It's cool, but they're
just people. The skies
don't part and glow
orange." As Banks
begins recording her
first album, is she
listening to anyone
for inspiration?
"Everyone," she says,
but mostly "Azealia
Banks."